Neige En Deuil, La - 6 - [Spanish]

This book is a classic tale, and quite enjoyable. The protagonist is a mountain guide, Isaïe, who has had some accidents in mountain climbing expeditions, nearly died in the last, and is terrified of going back up because he feels that the mountain has sent him a sign or warning. He now raises sheep, lives alone with his younger brother Marcellin (who is the family "black sheep," a thorougly lazy, unprincipled person), but whom Isaïe loves. People view him as having become a bit of a "simpleton," and it's true that he has become a lesser person since the accidents-- hasn't led expeditions or climbed for years. Then a plane crashes in snow and ice on the mountain, and shortly thereafter, the town's leading guide dies in a rescue mission. Although the view is that there are no survivors from the crash, Isaïe ends upconfronting his own worst fear--in leading his brother up that mountain. He knows Marcellin's motive is immoral: he wants to search the plane for gold, or money that can be picked off the bodies of the dead. Still Isaïe, who fears his brother would climb on his own and perish, goes up to safeguard him, and in so doing, finds something unexpected at the top.